Indian women finish eighth at Asian TT

Busan, July 3 (IANS) The Indian women's team finished eighth at the Asian Table Tennis Championships after going down to Malaysia 1-3 here.

It was a tough outing for the women paddlers against seasoned Malaysians Tuesday. The Indian team comprising Mouma Das, Shamini Kumaresan, Neha Aggarwal, did not have an easy start.

After Mouma lost to NG Sock Khim 4-11, 10-12, 4-11, Shamini could not match the guile of Beh Lee Wei who accounted for the national champion 11-7, 11-6, 11-5. But Neha gave a semblance of hope when she defeated Ting Hie Phim in straight games of 11-5, 11-6, 11-9n.

It was left to Shamini to up the ante but the Indian went down yet again to Khim, but not before taking a game off the Malaysian. The latter won 11-7, 13-15, 11-6, 11-6. Thus the Indians finished eighth in the Championships with the title going to the rampaging Chinese, who beat Hong Kong 3-0.

Earlier, the Indian women topped group G, accounting for Nepal 3-0, beat Iran 3-0 in round three to enter stage II of the Championships. There they defeated Thailand 3-0 to enter the quarterfinals. Unfortunately, they ran into the eventual winner China and lost 0-3 with Mouma Das exceptionally doing well by stretching Liu Shiwen to four games.

In 5-8 positional matches, the Indians lost to Chinese Taipei 0-3 and Neha Aggarwal yet again showing her fighting qualities. She just about managed to stretch her Taipei rival Lee I-Chen to four games but the Indians collectively could not put it across the Taipei's better-ranked girls.